Former Gedling Council leader Ivan Gollop, an environmental campaigner and widely admired schoolteacher as well as a potent Labour politician, has died aged 66 after a struggle with illness.

His political life, said his friend Vernon Coaker MP, was driven by a desire for greater equality, fairness and social justice.

After retiring from local politics and teaching, Mr Gollop spent his last years in West Dorset, where he became a parish councillor. He is survived by his wife Rose, grown-up children Zak and Rhiannon, and four grandchildren.

Born in Bristol in 1952, he attended Bristol Cathedral School and trained as a teacher. In 1975 his first appointment brought him to Nottingham, where he worked at Manvers Pierrepont School for 20 years, becoming head of Upper School.

Read More

When Manvers Pierrepont closed in 1995 he moved to Harry Carlton School in East Leake, where his prowess is recorded by ex-pupils on the website ratemyteachers.com. One former student wrote: “Ivan taught me in the late 90s and I still feel his influence today. He is a wonderful teacher and an asset to the school.”

Other comments on the site include: “Gollop is the best, and most inspirational, teacher that Harry Carlton has ever had or will have. Long live the king!” and “Love the man. Big respect.”

2006: Councillor Gollop in Front Street, one of the first areas of Arnold to benefit from CCTV

Priory Ward elected Mr Gollop to Gedling Borough Council in 1988. In 1991 he was elected leader of the opposition Labour group and when, four years later, his party took control of the borough, he became leader of the council.

When he was presented with the title of Honorary Alderman in 2012, the citation recalled his initiatives in the field of crime reduction and the environment. After losing his council seat in 2007 he became a founder and chairman of Gedling Climate Change Group.

Read More

A minute’s silence was observed at the last meeting of Gedling Borough Council and the flag was flown at half-mast.

Delivering the eulogy at Mr Gollop’s funeral service at the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross, Whitchurch Canonicorum, near Lyme Regis, Mr Coaker recalled a former teaching colleague and friend of 42 years whose passions, after his family, were cricket, rugby, film, music, good food and wine.

Honorary Alderman, 2012: the former council leader receives the honour from the Mayor of Gedling, Councillor Sandra Barnes

Mr Coaker, a former Minister of State for Schools, remembered their time in the common room at Manvers Pierrepont, “one of the most socially deprived schools in the whole country, with appalling poverty and appalling levels of attainment by so many pupils.

“In Ivan, here was a figure whose own intellectual and teaching brilliance you desperately used to try to lift and inspire your pupils.”

As for political life, Mr Coaker said of Mr Gollop: “He transformed, as much as anyone, Gedling Borough Council from a Tory fiefdom to a Labour one.”

The current Mayor of Gedling, Councillor Viv McCrossen, said: "Ivan Gollop was a very important figure in Gedling. He was the council's first Labour leader, he was committed to improving the environment and he worked very hard for the community."